How To Protect SSH With Fail2Ban on CentOS 8

Fail2Ban is a tool that helps protect servers from brute-force attacks by banning IP addresses that make too many failed login attempts. You can use Fail2Ban to protect the SSH service on a CentOS 8 server.

Here are the steps to install and configure Fail2Ban on CentOS 8:

1. Install Fail2Ban using the yum package manager:

sudo yum install fail2ban

2. Enable the Fail2Ban service:

sudo systemctl enable fail2ban

3. Start the Fail2Ban service:

sudo systemctl start fail2ban

4. Create a copy of the default Fail2Ban configuration file:

sudo cp /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

5. Edit the /etc/fail2ban/jail.local file and set the enabled option to true for the sshd jail:

[sshd]
enabled = true

6. Restart the Fail2Ban service to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart fail2ban

Fail2Ban is now configured to protect the SSH service on your CentOS 8 server. It will ban IP addresses that make too many failed login attempts, preventing brute-force attacks on your server.